Brass Plugins: Mime
Adding Criteria and Actions to
Mime
Criteria and actions are what give Mime it's functionality.
Even though Mime comes with lots of criteria pre-installed, 32Bits
and 3rd party developers are coding new criteria plugins for Mime
all the time. To download more criteria plugins please visit the
Mime
Criteria Download page.
A Mime criteria plugin is different to a normal
Brass plugin. They are only designed to be used by Mime itself.
They are released as a single plugin DLL file, and an associated
NFO file. The DLL contains the code for the criteria and the NFO
file contains the descriptors.
Usually a new criteria plugin will come with an
installer. If so, simply run the installer and follow any prompts.
If the plugin doesn't come with an installer, you
can add it manually. To do this simply copy the DLL and NFO file
from wherever you downloaded them into the <Brass Installation
Directory>/Plugins/Mime.
Once your plugin has been installed, go back into
the Mime Gesture Configuration screen and Mime will discover the
new criteria plugin automatically.
The Difference Between Plugins
and User Actions
In the next section, if you're up for it, you'll
learn how to use the very advanced features of Mime. Mime has the
ability to let you, the user, create your own criteria and action
plugins without writing a single line of code.
When a developer writes a criteria plugin for Mime,
they are doing it to specifically access features in an application.
These features might be quite complex and need a lot of code written
for them - there's no easy way to open a new Internet Explorer window,
make it browse to a website, save the page then scan the page for
keywords, for example. An action like that would have to be coded
in a full criteria plugin.
As the user, you don't need to worry about that.
All you do is install the "Internet Explorer" plugin,
and the "Browse, Save and Scan" action is already there
for you.
But what if you want to add a gesture to a specific
application that just performs a couple of relatively simple actions?
There's no way you want to learn to code just to do that, and writing
a plugin is way too much effort.
There's a simple solution. By using the Mime User
Action wizard, you can create actions for any application you want.
Plugins should always be your first solution - if there is
a plugin available for the application you want to add gestures
to, then use it. If not, you can add your own actions and criteria
to Mime. You'll see how to do this in a moment.
Removing Criteria
There's absolutely no harm in keeping lots of criteria
plugins in your Mime directory. However if you want to remove one,
simply delete both the DLL and NFO files. If you had any gestures
associated with actions and criteria you've deleted, Mime will let
you know and then disable the gestures.
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